The ultimate modular, no-solder, RGB LED panel system

Your Name In Lights!

We are bringing back "YOUR NAME IN LIGHTS!!!" If you like what we are doing and want to see your name on the big screen, this pledge level is for you. We will post a YouTube video of all of our "YOUR NAME IN LIGHTS!!!" backers with some cool animations and royalty free background tunes.

$90

ULTiM8x24

You see where this is going. That's right, three ULTiM8x8 RGB panels with an ULTiM8 Bus back plane to mount them on. Make a clock, or a twitter display, the world is your oyster! Comes with mounting hardware.

No longer available

Free US Shipping / $7 Worldwide

$260

ULTiM8x72

Three is good, but nine is thrice as nice! Nine ULTiM8x8 RGB panels with mounting hardware and three ULTiM8 Bus back planes. Great for an 8x72 LED Marquee display, an Awesome 24x24 LED matrix, or lots of blinky blocks all over the place!

No longer available

Free US Shipping / $10 Worldwide

$5

ULTiM8 Bus Board

A naked ULTiM8 bus board so you can mix and match pledge levels a la carte style. Mount 1, 2, or 3 ULTiM8x8 boards on each ULTiM8 Bus. Stack multiple ULTiM8 Busses to make even larger arrays. Each ULTiM8 Bus sports an Adafruit Feather footprint.

Recent Updates

Overview

ULTIM8x8 is an LED panel that does it all. From small wearable
projects to huge displays, ULTiM8x8 has you covered. We’ve designed a super-bright, extendable LED panel system that you can assemble without soldering or special skills. ULTiM8x8 is a flexible, reconfigurable display that perfectly suits your changing needs.

The ULTiM8x8 is designed for people who need an easily controlled LED display in a solid and very flexible system that puts out lots of color. Whether you need a small, powerful LED matrix or you’re putting together a monster display, you will love the mounting and connection options the ULTiM8x8 provides. Because it’s compatible with existing software libraries and hardware controllers, you avoid the extra headache commonly found with obscure control components and protocols. Art installations, ad spots, cosplay, info displays, and any IoT widget needing a few more status lights will welcome the addition of the ULTiM8x8.

Features

Smallest stackable 5050 RGB LED matrix board

Stackable design allows large matrices

Connections via threaded metal posts allow “no solder” assembly

Maintainable. When assembled using threaded metal posts, each panel in a matrix can be removed from the front side.

Four-pin header connections are available for power and signals (if threaded post construction is not used).

Specifications

RGB LED : APA102C

Matrix : 8 x 8 per panel (total 64 LEDs / Panel)

Panel Size : 2.4” x 2.4“ (approx. 61mm x 61mm)

LED pitch : 0.3” (7.62mm)

Max. input voltage : 5.5 V DC

Current consumption : 3.84 A per panel (at 20 mA per channel per LED, to drive all 64 LEDs at full brightness)

Comparisons

ULTiM8x8 Bus Board

For every three ULTiM8x8 boards you buy, we’ll throw in the ULTiM8x8 Bus Board.

ULTiM8x8 Bus Board render

This board ties the whole system together by allowing you to string multiple panels together with nothing more complicated than screws and standoffs. Mouse bites allow it to be snapped off easily. With some imagination, can be used to expand to larger matrices. Each bus board also includes a footprint for connecting a board from the awesome Adafruit Feather ecosystem of Arduino compatible boards. This opens up the ULTiM8x8 panel system to a wide range of easy to use controllers that will now connect directly to your bus board.

Bus board assembled with 3 ULTiM8x8 panels

Open Hardware

We believe in the Good that can be done when ideas are shared in the open. To contribute to the total knowledge of the Open Hardware community, the ULTiM8x8 design files are available under the CERN OHL v1.2 license and can be found on our GitHub repo.

ULTiM8x8 panels with Bus Board and hardware.

Manufacturing Plan

Both Maniacal Labs and WyoLum have had a great relationship with our contract manufacturer, Seeed Studio, for years. Seeed not only produces several of our existing products, but they have already produced two separate 60 unit prototype runs of the ULTiM8x8. That means the hard parts truly have been done already. We have verified designs, a solid test plan, and a proven materials and manufacturing pipeline. The only thing left to do is to order up another, larger run than the last one.

Risks & Challenges

We have already been through three rounds of prototypes, all manufactured by Seeed Studio, and we’ve gone through thousands of hours of quality and stress testing.

Risk: Complexity. Each panel pushes the absolute limit of how tightly these LEDs can packed on a single board and any one bad LED ruins the whole board. We have mitigated this by using the highest quality components and best automated assembly techniques available.

About The Team

Maniacal Labs and WyoLum met back in 2015 during the Maniacal Labs AllPixel Kickstarter campaign. Maniacal Labs had an awesome LED controller and WyoLum had amazing LED panels. It was a perfect match. In 2015, Maniacal Labs built Colossus and the guys at WyoLum countered with a challenge: What could be done with a box full of their awesome TiM LED panels? The answer was the WyoManiacal Display. But that made us immediately start talking about how we could do it better. What all of us wanted in the perfect LED panel. The ULTiM8x8 was the product of those discussions.